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Monday, August 30, 2010

I used to be afraid of sewing on my layouts. Sometimes it's still a little scary -- especially on a nearly completed layout. What if I mess it up? Then my layout will be ruined!

Thankfully, that hasn't happened -- and I love the extra POP! and texture that sewing brings to a page.

This one was the answer to a THaW (Three a Week) challenge at Willow Traders to use a grid layout arrangement on a page. I scraplifted a bit from the current Creating Keepsakes magazine, which featured layout ideas for photos from county fairs. It also fit the current challenge at Sweet Peach Crop Shop's blog to -- you guessed it! -- sew on your layout.

I sewed on the beige paper, around the grid, before I tore the edges and attached it to the cardstock. My sewing machine will jam if I try to sew on only one piece of paper; so I put a scrap piece of paper underneath it, sewed the border and then carefully tore away the scrap paper in back. (This is a good use for that thin paper I bought when I started scrapping, which I never used but can't seem to throw out) There was an Oops! moment when my stitching started out crooked at the top corner; that's why the little rick rack brackets are there!

Granddaughter Anna and I spent a wonderful August morning at Niabi Zoo; we rode the train and the merry go round, visited with all the animals -- including a giraffe family of 5 that included two babies and African penguins splashing in a kiddie wading pool -- and then left for lunch at McDonald's. Our favorite attractions were the train ride (Anna) and the giraffe family (me -- along with the air conditioned gift shop!) so these will be the subjects of future layouts, since this Grandma-razzi got plenty of photos.

There were many special moments during my younger daughter's wedding and reception; but one of my favorites was her father-daughter dance. Kristen's song choice was unique, and knew this one was going to need a little explanation ... so before the DJ cued up the song, she took the microphone to tell the wedding guests how the song came to be special to her.

The story starts when my husband was a boy. He and his brother Tom, who is a year younger, received a record player as a joint Christmas gift. Tom chose their first record album, and the brothers played it until they knew one particular song by heart.

"When I was a little girl, my dad sang this song to me every night at bedtime because it was the only song he knew all the words to," she said. Then she and her dad took their place on the dance floor, and the DJ cued the music. The guests gave surprised chuckles when they heard "Trailers for sale or rent...." as Roger Miller sang his best known song, "King of the Road". Soon they were clapping their hands along to the music; and the best part was when the guests joined in on the last stanza, "I'm a man of means by no means, King of the Road!"

Kristen has been saying since she was 11 years old that this was going to be her daddy-daughter wedding dance "because it's our song." And so it is! And here's my layout commemorating this memory:

(A little side note: Uncle Tom still had the album! and he gave it to Kristen and her husband, Ian as a little memento) The design started with a sketch from Sketch Inspirations. Those fantastic photos are the work of Tiffany Doubek.

I created this layout for my design team submission at My Sketch World, but I couldn't show it until after the DT call was over. The layout was based on a sketch by Lucy, owner of My Sketch World, with photos from the afternoon when granddaughter Anna and I played in the puddles after a summer rain.

I wanted to show her constant motion as she jumped and splashed through the puddles. It was such a fun afternoon, and I'm happy I could share it with her.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

That's the name of today's "Blue Plate Special" at Cookin' Up Creations. The "Blue Plate Specials" are daily inspirations brought to you by the design team members. My subject is homemade banners .... stop by and take a look!

And another exciting bit of news (for me, anyway!) -- I made the design team at Nuts About Sketches! I'm excited because I love scrapping with sketches, and I have been a fan of Shawn's sketches since I was first introduced to them through a challenge at Willow Traders.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

I' so excited to be a new member of the Layout Design Team at My Sketch World! It's truly an honor to be a part of such a talented and creative team of artists. Lucy's sketches are awesome -- go and check them out! Be sure to visit the forum too -- it's a lively community full of friendly people. The ABC Summer Challenge crop is going on now.

I've got the September sketch in my hand and I can't wait to get started! Be on the lookout for a sneak peek or two between now and then.

Monday, August 16, 2010

that I'm part of the design team at Cookin' Up Creations! It's a great scrapbooking forum with lots of fun challenges, friendly people and great conversations, as well as an awesome gallery from the talented DT and forum members. I'm actually part of the "guest design team" but I'll be posting some "Blue Plate Specials" and other fun things. Be sure to check it out!

Friday, August 13, 2010

First of all, thanks so much to everyone who stopped by during the Simply Obsessed Third Birrthday blog hop! I really appreciated all of your kind comments. I haven't had a chance today to check out the Scrap That Vacation weekend crop, but hoping to get over there later tonight or tomorrow. The Simply Obsessed crops are always lots of fun!

I drove home from Wisconsin today with one detour because of a closed road (construction season is the pits!) and I was so happy for the GPS! There was construction pretty much everywhere. Then I drove through some wind and rain close to home. There's a fairly nasty storm front moving through our area tonight.

As always, there are so many fun challenges and loads of inspiration! I'm hoping to spend a good part of the weekend in my scrap room. Here are a couple of projects from early in the week:

This one was an answer to a couple of challenges: one of this week's THaW challenges at Willow Traders was to use themed paper for a purpose other than the one for which it was intended. I used Max & Whiskers pet themed paper for a layout of my grandson Ryan (who's now 10) as a toddler. It also worked for design team member Jenny's challenge at ScrapbookDeals4U to use two different fonts in the title. The inspiration for the design was a sketch by Lucy Chesna of My Sketch World.

The challenge here was to use borders on a layout for the ABC Summer Challenge at My Sketch World. I used a sketch from Sketch Inspiration. And it also satisfied design team member Michelle's challenge at SD4U to use punches.

And a couple of cards created for the ABS Summer Challenges at My Sketch World:

Hoping to have a couple more layouts and/or cards to post by the end of the weekend! Thanks for stopping by.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Good morning! I'm so excited to be a part of Simply Obsessed's Birthday Blog Hop! This fabulous scrapbook kit club, online store and scrapbooking community is celebrating its THIRD anniversary this weekend with a fun crop -- and the blog hop is "the party favor before the party", so to speak.

The blog hop starts at the Simply Obsessed blog; and you should have come from design team member Sarah Eclavea's blog. If not, please start at the Simply Obsessed blog and work your way through all the blogs participating in the hop. I promise you'll find plenty of inspiration and eye candy!)

In honor of SO's third anniversary, I created this little birthday card. It's my first time working with a square card design.

The papers are from the October Afternoon Farm Fresh line. The cute little tree was created with the Cricut Lite Bloom cartridge, and the label is a Spellbinders die. The apples were punched with my trusty old paper punch. I used denim blue glimmer mist on the label to create a sky and honeydew mist (smeared with a sponge) for the grass. Working with glimmer mist is still pretty new for me. Here's a close up:

The inspiration for the card design came from the latest "Card Creations" magazine by PaperCrafts.

Thank you for stopping by -- and now your next stop on the SO Third Birthday Blog Hop is Maureen's blog to see what she's prepared for the party. Remember, the Third Birthday Weekend Crop starts Friday, August 13 and goes all weekend long at Simply Obsessed. Hope to see you there!

Friday, August 6, 2010

... waiting for the car windshield replacement guys to come "sometime between 8 and noon". It's 10:30 now .... It all started with one of those little rock dings (probably thrown from the back of a truck on the interstate) a week or so ago. The hot weather helped it to spread into a crack 3/4 of the way across the windshield in a short amount of time. Interestingly enough, it stopped at the place where my GPS holder was suctioned on the inside of the window. Maybe that little suction was enough to make it stop? I don't think so either, that was Mike's theory.

Along with this morning's "grounding", my little house guest has moved on to her other grandparents, who will return her this weekend to her parents. Anna is 2 1/2 and is a joy to have around; but having a toddler is also a LOT of work! "Aga" gets tired!

Taking advantage of the quiet to play in my scrap room. I completed this one this morning -- hoping the patterned paper on the right will qualify as "polka dots" for the D is for DOTS challenge at My Sketch World's ABC Crop (see below) It also works for Week 1 of the August THaW (THree a Week) at Willow Traders, as well as for this week's sketch at The Everyday Scrapper. The sketch itself is from Sketch Inspiration. I decided to go out of my usual style and just play. It was a little messy and lots of fun. The Rock and Roll stamps were part of a Marah Johnson set that I picked up for a buck at Big Lots -- you never know what treasures you can find there! The papers are from Junkitz Extreme Boy line, and they've been in my stash for a while.

ROCK AND ROLL

I did this one last week for the THaW, as well as for one of the Filmed In Front of a Live Studio Audience month-long challenges at Cookin' Up Creations. Tara from Up the Street Scrapbooking provided the sketch. The papers and stickers are all Basic Grey Green at Heart.

GARDEN GIRL

This one was for a Cookin' Up Creations challenge to use only striped patterned paper; it also fit a THaW challenge for this week. (I love it when that works out -- two challenges with one layout!) The photos were taken with my cell phone at the local truck stop. I told Anna to "make a funny face" and texted it to her parents.

MONKEY BUSINESS

My Sketch World started a great five-week challenge series this week -- the ABC's of Summer. Each day brings a new challenge, starting with A on August 1. The great thing is that some of them are layout challenges, and some are for cards. With Anna here, I concentrated on the cards -- faster and easier to do in small snippets of time here and there. These are my favorites -- the challenge "A for Adornment" -- aka bling. I used Stickles on the papers and a rhinestone or two. Most of the fish are from a pack of K & Co. layered stickers from Walmart (so is the monkey above) The ABC's are going on all month -- check it out!

BIRTHDAY FISHES CARDS

The ferocious watch dogs (two Boston terriers who think it's a crime for anyone to come to the door and not greet or play with them) are woofing up a storm, which means the glass guy must be here. Catch you later -- have a great weekend!

About Me

For those of you who don't "know" me, I'm an avid scrapbooker as well as a wife, mother of four, grandmother of nine (and counting!), and retired newspaper writer and public relations professional. I'm a native Illinois girl but moved to Colorado in November 2015 with my husband of 33 years, Mike, and my mother.
I scrapbook because I feel it's important to chronicle my family's daily lives as well as the "big events", and also as a form of artistic expression.
Our four children all are married with families, careers, mortgages and lives of their own. They're all back in the Midwest and we don't get to see each other as much as we would like, so photos and videos are important ways to share events in each others' lives.